Pushti Sanji
What it is
Pushti Sanji is the fortnight of Vraj's evening art. It begins after Bhadrapad Purnima and runs through the dark fortnight of Bhadarva, the fifteen days of pitru paksha, ending on Sarvapitri Amas. Sanjhi takes its name from sanjh, evening: in Vraj the gopis would gather at dusk and lay out exquisite designs of flowers and petals, keeping a vrat with the wish of attaining Shri Krishna as their own, and Prabhu, unable to stay away from anything made with such love, would come to behold the sanjhi.
In Pushtimarg havelis this leela is relived daily: through the fortnight a fresh sanjhi is decorated before Shree Thakorji each evening, of flowers, carrying the bhav of Shri Swaminiji; of kel (banana) leaf, carrying the bhav of Shri Chandravaliji; and in other materials besides, followed by bhog, aarti and kirtan. At Nathdwara a magnificent sanjhi of the chaurasi kos of Vraj (its forests, kunds and leela sthals) is created in Kamal Chowk and revealed at Sandhya Aarti darshan through all fifteen days.
Why we observe it
In the worldly calendar the pitru fortnight is a pause: no weddings, no new beginnings. Pushtimarg fills that very fortnight with beauty made for Prabhu. That is the quiet teaching of Sanjhi: there is no season in which seva stops, and no evening that cannot become Prabhu's evening. The bhav is the gopis' own: to make something lovely with one's own hands, fresh every day, for no reason except that Prabhu will come and look and be pleased. Nothing is kept; tomorrow's sanjhi will be made anew, because love does not hoard its offerings.
Sanjhi also lets a Vaishnav dwell in Vraj without leaving home: petal by petal, its kunds, groves and leela places take shape before Shree Thakorji, and the heart walks the chaurasi kos in bhavna. To sit before a sanjhi darshan is to learn that seva can be art, and that art, offered, becomes seva.